Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett certainly aren’t spring chickens anymore.
The two actors (aged 63 and 53, respectively) are in negotiations to star as grandparents in Fox Searchlight’s planned film version of the Broadway musical “Black Nativity,” with Jennifer Hudson in talks to play their estranged daughter.
Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou,” “Talk to Me”) is writing and directing the adaptation, which centers on a young black teenager who is sent by his mother (Hudson) to spend Christmas in Harlem with the grandparents he’s never met. A sermon delivered by his grandfather, the Reverend Clarence Cobbs (Jackson), serves as the catalyst for a stylized retelling of the classic Nativity story.
In addition to his role as the Reverend, Jackson is expected to play several different parts in the film’s Nativity sequences.
The news was broken by Variety.
Written by legendary novelist, poet and playwright Langston Hughes, “Black Nativity” was first performed on Broadway in 1961, becoming one of the first shows penned by an African-American to be staged there.
Has anyone seen the play? Think Jackson, Bassett and Hudson are right for their respective parts? Sound off in the comments!